Between September and November 2020, the second Nagorno-Karabakh war, or 44-day war, marked the defeat of Armenia against Azerbaijan. The war ended with the death of 3,800 Armenian soldiers and the loss of part of the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region controlled by Armenia for around thirty years. In September 2023, Azerbaijan regained full control of Nagorno-Karabakh, completing the military humiliation of Armenia. Yerevan had ceded significant territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, and Baku’s lightning offensive forced Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian separatists to capitulate. In the 1990s, the two countries had already clashed in a first war which left more than 30,000 dead and was won by Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are now discussing a peace treaty. The two countries have already agreed on 80% of the points and Nikol Pashinian, the Armenian Prime Minister, hopes that COP29 will be the opportunity to conclude it. But several sensitive issues remain unanswered and these negotiations are criticized by part of the opposition in Armenia who fear that Pashinian – whose popularity is falling – will make too big concessions, in particular a change to the Constitution which could be a casus belli.
Focus: Armenian cultural heritage still in danger in Azerbaijani lands
With Anita Khachaturovadoctoral student at Cevipol at the Free University of Brussels, her thesis focuses on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In July 2024, a report from the European Center for Law and Justice reveals that the millennia-old heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh is in danger. Satellite images show the disappearance and worrying destruction of Armenian heritage monuments in the region, which came under Azerbaijani control in September 2023. A cultural erasure which is not new.
Belgium
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